Pages

Monday, October 8, 2012

Juan of the Dead (October 11th and 14th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[JUAN OF THE DEAD screens
Thursday October 11th at 6:45 pm and Sunday October 14th at 8:55 pm
at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review
by Bob Ignizio

Things must be loosening up in Cuba now
that Raul Castro has taken over for his brother Fidel. How else to
explain the Cuban/Spanish coproduction JUAN OF THE DEAD,
a zombie comedy that isn't afraid to satirize the
communist island country? Instead being thrown in prison and having
his film suppressed, writer/director Alejandro Brugués has instead
seen his work make the rounds of the international festival circuit, achieving a fair amount of praise in both horror and arthouse circles along the way.

The film focuses
on small-time criminal Juan (Alexis Díaz de Villegas) and his best
friend Lazaro (Jorge Molino). When the dead start rising, it doesn't
take long before these two start working on an angle to make money
off of the situation. Juan and Lazaro join forces with Lazaro's son
Vladi (Andros Perugorría) and a couple of criminal associates to
hire themselves out as the zombie equivalent of the Ghostbusters,
despite not being very good at the job. Along the way, Juan also
tries to reconcile with his estranged daughter Camila (Andrea Duro).
From there, it's more or less the same plot as every other zombie
movie as the gang slowly dwindles in numbers.

Although
clearly modeled after the 2004 British horror/comedy SHAUN
OF THE DEAD, JUAN
has a distinctive flavor all its own. Obviously the aforementioned
social commentary about life in Cuba is a big part of that, with the
government trying to convince the population that the living dead are
actually U.S. sponsored dissidents. Also setting the film apart,
although not necessarily in a good way, is the unlikability of most
of its characters. Juan occasionally shows a brief flash of decency,
just enough to keep the audience marginally on his side, but to put
it bluntly, he and his crew are all assholes with the exception of
Camila. The persistent undertone of casual homophobia that runs
through the movie didn't exactly help endear it to me, either. None
of that is enough to completely spoil my enjoyment of the film, but
it does diminish it.

That
still makes this arguably the best zombie film in the last decade.
Granted, the competition hasn't exactly been strong, but thanks to
its cultural peculiarities and obvious love for the genre, this would
still be a film worth watching even in better times for the cinematic
undead. For the horror fans who take such things into account, the
gore is kind of mild by zombie film standards, and a lot of it is
done with CGI. Despite the obvious inspiration of SHAUN OF
THE DEAD (the dynamic of Juan
and Lazaro's friendship is similar to that of Shaun and Ed, and
instead of trying to reconcile with an old girlfriend, Juan is trying
to regain the love and respect of his daughter), there aren't a whole
lot of obvious, annoying winks at other movies. It's not great, but
if you're a horror fan it's a decent enough bit of entertainment. 2
1/2 out of 4 stars.